The course, in its second year at two polytechnic institutes, is the latest of many, mostly futile, campaigns by Singapore’s government to get its citizens to mate and multiply. Over the past 25 years, the mating rituals organized by the government — tea dances, wine tastings, cooking classes, cruises, screenings of romantic movies — have been among the country’s least successful social engineering programs. In 1991, for example, when the government began offering cash bonuses to couples with more than two children, the newspaper printed tips for having sex in the back seat of a car, including directions to some of the “darkest, most secluded and most romantic spots” for parking. In 1984, the country’s master planner, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, declared that too few of the country’s most eligible women, those with college degrees, were marrying and having children. In other words, said Annie Chan, director of a matchmaking agency, “Our government wants smart ladies to meet smart guys to get smart children. read more

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Over the past 25 years, the mating rituals organized by the government — tea dances, wine tastings, cooking classes, cruises, screenings of romantic movies — have been among the country’s least successful social engineering programs. In 1991, for example, when the government began offering cash bonuses to couples with more than two children, the newspaper printed tips for having sex in the back seat of a car, including directions to some of the “darkest, most secluded and most romantic spots” for parking. In 1984, the country’s master planner, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew , declared that too few of the country’s most eligible women, those with college degrees, were marrying and having children. In other words, said Annie Chan, director of a matchmaking agency, “Our government wants smart ladies to meet smart guys to get smart children. read more

Technorati Tags: government, singapore, 151, country8217s, year, children, dating news

At the Carver Center for Arts and Technology, Paige Hayes (left) watches forensic nurse Linda Kelly hold up an evidence gathering stick from a rape kit. The photograph shows a young man in glasses posing behind a stem of lilies, his head tilted toward the camera and a half-smile playing at his lips. Another student volunteered that the guy “doesn’t look shady. The image came from the MySpace profile of John C. Gaumer, the former University of Maryland, Baltimore County student who was sentenced last year to life in prison without the possibility of parole for raping and fatally beating a woman he met on the social networking site. read more

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